Eminem - My Name Is

More than any rapper before or since, Eminem has become a true household name. Whether you’re talking to a preschooler or your grandmother, the man needs no introduction. So it’s strange to think that his relationship with the public began, like so many others, with a simple and unassuming, “Hi! My Name Is...” While Infinite and (to a greater extent) The Slim Shady EP caught the attention of clued-in heads in the years prior, it was this cut, released in 1999 as the lead single off Mathers’ major-label debut full-length, that marked his emergence as a major player in the game. Over mentor Dr. Dre‘s iconic interpolation of Labi Siffre’s I Got The…, Em offers a full demonstration of his masterful, polysyllabically-rhymed style, as well as introducing us to the themes—cartoonish violence, childhood strife, sexual perversion—that would become his bread and butter. Phillip Atwell‘s official video, an off-the-wall pastiche of scenes and characters from popular culture, was no less influential that the song itself, establishing a formula that Em would seek to recapture in the visuals for future lead singles.